If you've been following me on
Instagram over the last week, then you've been getting sneak peeks into our latest adventure. We bought an old School House! It has been in the works since last Fall, but we weren't sure it would actually happen until it actually happened, so I kept it under wraps until the papers were signed. But now, we are the proud owners of a one room rural school house in my hometown, Lexington, Missouri.
This is one of those places that I've driven by hundreds of times and dreamed about what I could do with it - and as I discovered this weekend at home, many other locals have done the same thing! When it came on the market in the Fall, I went on a long walk and thought of 100 ideas (from b&b to bakery!), before I had the "ah-ha" moment. After it came to me, my mind went running and there was no turning back - I had decided to move my entire store operations to The School House.
All of the product processing, packaging and shipping will happen from here. For the past four years, the fulfillment has happened at a warehouse, where I am one of their clients. They have been great for helping me grow to this point, but I have such an itch to, of course, "do it myself." Now, I will set up my own staff to custom package my products in this very charming building. I have so many plans about expanding our offerings and ability to make every single order more special. I am so excited, I can hardly believe it. How fun is it that all of your orders will be coming straight from this little building in the country?!
This is the school house at dusk last weekend, when everything had a glaze of ice on it.
It sits on almost two acres of land off of a country road. I plan to have a big garden and an orchard... at some point.
It was built in 1914, and served as a rural school until 1956 when all of the local rural schools were consolidated. For about 40 years, it sat empty. In the 90's the original owners of the farm on which it sits, renovated it to be a bed and breakfast. It has been empty for sometime now, waiting to be brought to life again.
The family did an excellent job renovating it and bringing it up to modern standards, all while being respectful of its simple, utilitarian style. The chalkboard and most of the trim is original to the school.
The "students" came back to the school after the renovation for a reunion and signed their names on the chalkboards. How amazing is that? They are still there, and will remain, as a nod to the past.
Here are some of the students that attended school here. I love to look at each one of their faces. They likely walked to school, or rode a horse. Many of the family names are still the same families that own the surrounding farmland to this day.
The band!
The main feature of the room is the entire wall of windows. They are glorious and extend almost all of the way to the top of the 12 food ceilings.
The room is really one big open blank space - exactly what I need it to be.
Off of the one room, is a kitchen that was the original Library. The cupboard to the right was the original bookcase.
The first thing I did was replace the appliances. You know I have to have a functioning kitchen! I plan to do a little DIY update by painting the cabinetry, and replacing the pulls, faucet and hood.
I want to be respectful of the history here, but I also want to steward it into the future and make it useful and give it life again. What is better than giving something old a new use and purpose?
I've been collecting inspiration photos since the fall, and just had a gut feeling of how I wanted it to look. I love utilitarian spaces and plan to use Shaker inspired paint colors, furniture and fixtures to make it feel like it should. I don't want to dramatically change The School House, but I want it to feel very country, but fresh and bright. The trim will all be painted this creamy beige (Ben Moore Marble Canyon). All of the walls will stay their original creamy white. The moving part of the windows will stay dark stained, as well as the doors.
When I came across these inspiration photos, they were exactly what I had envisioned. A utilitarian, country workshop. It feels clean and fresh, muted and subtle. It is seasonless - I can see it with holiday greens and berries, daffodils in spring and big bunches of oak leaves in the fall.
I love the cream on cream woodwork and walls in my home, but I am so drawn to this more country look. I'm excited to have a place to use it!
I will not be getting new cabinets or countertops, but this is what I would do if I was : )
I LOVE thinking about the functioning plans for the packaging and shipping. I really hope to bring our order fulfillment out of the normal "box" and do some fun and creative things.
I would like to paint the floor in the foyer with a diamond pattern - so charming.
We spent the weekend there, getting everything ready to paint. Here, my assistant painted all of the color samples on boards.
I had six different shades of beige and grey to find the perfect one that complimented the light and the walls.
I thought this Crisp Khaki was the winner, but it dried to a sort of bleh tone.
We took the doors off so they would not be painted - aren't they beautiful?
Kitchen to the left, foyer to the right. We are doing a beadboard and peg treatment in the foyer.
This is the final paint color for the trim - Ben Moore Marble Canyon. It was the perfect creamy, warm beige that wasn't too dull, wasn't too green, and wasn't too pink. Paint can be so funny. Here's hoping I picked the right one - it is being applied as I type.
I'm excited to take you along on this journey!
Follow along on
Instram for the behind the scenes progress.